All thriller – no filler
A friend has joined www.housebites.com. It’s where you order takeway food from home cooks. People cook food for you in their home kitchens. Housebites provide the online menu, taking the order and the money, and the delivery. It’s all very ‘social’ so you get feedback, ratings, twitter and so on. Cuban anyone?
Thats the time and temperature in our bedroom. Bit of a cold start this morning! No heating in my place – not normally needed, but this is the chilliest its been for a long time.
Had a lovely night on Saturday at the Battersea. Police Ball.
Great night. And they even played old fashioned (i.e. 20th Century) music. Which was nice.
Streatham Ice Rink has a faded look to it, but despite that it’s thriving. There has been an ice rink in Streatham (South London, UK) since 1931 but this came under threat this year with massive redevelopment plans. Thanks to the tireless campaigning of local people, this part of South London will continue to have an ice rink both during and after the redevelopment.
A temporary rink is due to be built on Pope’s Road, Brixton for two and a half years and then towards the end of 2013, a new permanent rink will open.
There will be a Closing Gala at Streatham on Sunday 18th December 2011 starting at 4pm with a Gala performance from 4 to 6pm followed by a party on the ice until 8pm. Tickets will be £7.50 to include the Gala, the skate afterwards and skate hire if required. For more details see Gala Poster.
Please come along to watch, skate or both. It is a chance to celebrate the long life of the much-loved 1931 building and mark the end of one era and the start of the next.
This will be the last day of operation of the rink. The temporary rink will be open on Monday 19th December.
An interesting construction in Battersea Park yesterday. Some kind of Art thing, but built only from bamboo and elastic bands.
It’s a dry run for a much bigger construction this time next year, during the Olympic Games.
..on the way to the tip…
There can hardly be a more pleasant way to earn your pint than this. As long as you time it right, the tide will gently push you up river, you then disembark, sup a refreshing pint or two of EPA during slackwater, then allow the outgoing tide to help float back to Kew bridge.
Thank you James.
The annual Friends of Battersea Park BBQ at the Zoo event took place last Monday 13th June and we were lucky enough to be able to go – the event was sold out.
We enjoyed a private ‘after-hours’ view of the animals and play area, and the BBQ food and entertainment was excellent.
As you can see from the photo, the event was very well attended, thanks in part to the very good weather.
Although there weren’t many children along, there were entertainments laid on, as if the zoo itself wasn’t enough. Here a local facepainter generously gave her time to help the fundraising efforts.
Taking advantage of the sunshine, we took a trip on a Thames Clipper riverboat from the London Eye to Greenwich. The pier at the London Eye serves both this commuter-style service and the tourist boats – the Clipper is significantly faster though even with the extra stops.
At Greenwich, the Cutty Sark is still shrouded in scaffolding after the terrible fire last year. We took the kids to the National Maritime Museum and enjoyed the Toy Ships exhibition currently showing there.
What caught my eye, one pictured here as No.5, are some Stirling-engine powered boats. The description for this example reads:
“Hot-air-propelled warship and box. J William Sutcliffe founded his sheet-metal works near Leeds in 1885. Producing its first toy boar in 1920, the company would pioneer the production of boat hulls from a single pressing. This boat, one of their long-running warship designs, is powered by a simple water-filled engine heated by a small methylated-spirit burner.”
In the shop on the way out I picked up a pop-pop boat, powered by candle. On test runs in the bath we found it a bit underpowered so changed the candle for some solid parafin tablets. Lots of dire warnings about how it isn’t a toy and not suitable for children, which is a shame as it makes a lovely sound as it chugs around.
For those of you with your own workshop sheds, here’s a great article about how pop-pop boats work and how to build one yourself.